People shape the landscapes we live in, but without chemistry it's very hard to quantify how much we change the environment.  This talk will explore the ways that we can quantify the effects people have on the environment through a variety of chemical metrics.  We will travel to western China and western Cuba to learn about the effects of deforestation and reforestation as well as indigenous, conventional, and organic agriculture.  Along the way we will explore techniques for measuring water and sediment to get the data we need to understand the effects of people on the environment.

Speaker: Dr. Amanda Schmidt, Associate Professor and Chair of Geology at Oberlin College.

Dr. Schmidt was raised in Hong Kong, where she first became interested in studying the effects people have on the environment.  After finishing her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, she realized that Geology is a better fit for her interests.  She completed a PhD in Geological Sciences from the University of Washington prior to starting at Oberlin College.  While at Oberlin her research has focused primarily on the intersection between people and watershed processes and developing and testing the geochemical techniques to quantify these relationships.

7:30 p.m. – 7:40 p.m.: Introduction by President Battles

7:40 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.: Lecture and question/answer time

This lecture is free and open to the public, and will also be live-streamed on Zoom for anyone who wishes to attend virtually. Please register in advance if you'd like to attend the live-streamed Zoom version of this lecture.